Chapter 35
The bellies of the residents, who had not eaten a meal yet, growled with hunger.
Curious about how they managed their meals, Johan followed Kalmo as he went to get food.
Kalmo led Johan down to the basement of the building where they had been sleeping.
“Is there a food storage in this basement?”
“It used to be a storage for simple sacrificial items, but for us, who can’t leave a certain radius, it has now become a cold storage.”
The person answering was not Kalmo but his younger brother, Kali.
Indeed, the deeper they went, the cooler it became. The temperature was low enough that food wouldn’t spoil even if left out.
“We swear by the gods that we have never harmed humans.”
“Still swearing by that petty god, huh?”
“Well, there isn’t anyone else to swear by.”
At the end of the stairs was a metal door. There was no visible lock.
“As we mentioned earlier, it’s not the first time another world’s beings have come here.”
Creeeak
“Don’t be too surprised. It’s just our effort to live like humans.”
The metal door opened, revealing a storage filled with the corpses of various creatures.
And next to them, drums filled with blood.
“Ah, aren’t you surprised?”
“Well, I’ve grown too rugged to be surprised by such things.”
The mummified corpses were so desiccated that it was hard to tell what they had been in life.
Johan was simply curious about what they had been.
“Emotion.”
Johan had the Emotion skill. It allowed him to identify the true nature of any target.
[Mountain Rabbit]
– Rank: None
– Karma: 1
– Description: A rabbit that lived bouncing around the forest. It was killed by a vampire without realizing it.
[Urk]
– Rank: D
– Karma: 65
– Description: A monster with a combative nature comparable to dragons. It killed multiple sentient beings not for survival but for battle. For some unknown reason, it died after encountering a vampire in a place opened by a portal.
The corpses were a mix of animals and monsters, with half of them being mixed together.
The human-like corpses were from Urk, and there was debris scattered around.
“Are there even Covad corpses? Really, there are no human corpses?”
As Kalmo said, there really were no human corpses.
The number of corpses suggested that there was enough blood here to last ten years.
“At first, it was a bit unsettling, but I got used to it over time. Since becoming a vampire, most blood tastes sweet.”
“You mentioned that portals have opened before, right?”
“Yes. This is probably around the 13th time. Until now, only monsters have come through. This is the first time humans have appeared.”
Johan’s lingering doubts vanished. He had no choice but to believe.
Kali’s eyes, reflected in the torchlight, were clearer than anyone else’s. They belonged to someone who had spent his whole life farming.
‘He doesn’t seem like the type to lie. There doesn’t seem to be a reason to.’
“Alright. Let’s go back up.”
Johan and Kali carried the drums filled with blood back up.
The two hands full of blood seemed to hold about 50 liters.
“It doesn’t seem like you eat that much. There are fifty people.”
“Normally, it’s hard to drink a liter of water at once. This amount is enough to fill us up.”
When they came back to the surface, the village residents eagerly received the drums.
Apparently, they were quite hungry, as the distribution was quick.
The pungent smell of blood filled the surroundings.
Instead of wrinkling his nose, Johan decided to think about the tasks ahead.
Farming would be better the sooner it started.
“Yang Hyung, we’ll start right away tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, we should start right away to finish within ten days.”
None of them intended to stay long. Even though it was a dungeon with minimal death threats, they couldn’t be too comfortable.
“During my time here, I spoke with the locals. They said all the seeds are available, so we just need to plant them. If we do well, we might be able to finish in around eight days.”
“That’s good news. Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Well, there’s one thing we need to check precisely.”
“Check?”
“Performing tasks during the day or night doesn’t significantly impact farming. The quality might drop slightly, but it doesn’t matter if planting or harvesting is done at night. After all, growing crops depends on sunlight.”
“Oh. I see?”
“However, according to the residents, there’s been something odd. The crops that barely sprouted keep dying by the next day.”
“Dead? As if someone is doing it on purpose?”
“Yes, it’s as if someone is doing it deliberately. It’s not just wilting but being uprooted and dug up.”
It was indeed strange, as crazy as a god that turns people into vampires.
“Do you think it’s someone’s scheme?”
“No, it’s much worse. It reeks terribly.”
Yang Mu also shared Johan’s thoughts.
The more they delved into it, the more it seemed like a sinister god was involved.
“We’ve filled our stomachs, so let me guide you to see the fields. It’s better to see it for yourself rather than hear a hundred explanations.”
After wiping the blood from his mouth, Kalmo stood up. He then personally led Johan to the fields and explained the situation.
“Wow. This is truly a sight.”
The condition of the fields under the faint moonlight was indeed horrific.
It looked like a battlefield, as if someone had dropped a bomb.
“Do you see these footprints?”
“Footprints?”
When the torch was held closer, the footprints were indeed visible.
They were much larger than human footprints; they were from monsters.
“These seem to be the footprints of Devs, and there are several mixed together.”
“Whenever we plant seeds and the sprouts are about to grow, things like this keep happening. It happens during the day when we can’t move, so we don’t know the exact cause.”
It was evident that he was feeling very frustrated.
Especially since it was not just ordinary farming but a desperate effort to return to being human.
“Did this kind of thing never happen before? Did they move their nests to this area?”
Devs usually live in mountainous regions. They primarily feed on emergency crops, so there was a reason for them to come here.
“No, this kind of thing never happened before becoming vampires. There were no monsters or wild boars here to begin with.”
“Ah.”
Everyone swallowed their words that were about to come out.
They just nodded at each other.
“This situation is really tricky.”
“Shall we just speak frankly? That bastard is such a scoundrel.”
“Ha, please do it one more time. Please.”
“You bastard!”
It was clear.
A god who claims to be a deity of life turns its followers into vampires and sends monsters to sabotage their farming.
Could it be that gods have something incomprehensible to humans?
“This quest might be more challenging than expected.”
“Even you think so? It reeks of something rotten.”
Yang Mu, who also had a good sense, raised his middle finger to the dark sky.
The intervention of a god was probably certain.
Perhaps the essence of this quest was not farming but enduring the schemes of a vile god.
“Tomorrow, we should check the surroundings. We need to identify all elements that could hinder farming.”
“Are you not checking it now?”
Johan shook his head at Balmo’s question.
There was no need to inspect during the night when monsters are active.
Since there was no urgency, it was better to take a little break.
“Mr. Yang, please gather the seedlings first. We’ll start working immediately after checking the surroundings.”
“Understood. I’ll move everything to the warehouse in the center of the village.”
Pause
Kalmo, who was eager to get moving, looked at Johan with a somewhat complex expression. Johan immediately understood the meaning behind his look.
“Don’t feel pressured. We’re helping you to leave this place as well.”
“But it’s hard to do that.”
It was something he had experienced before.
People with genuine intentions sometimes find it hard to accept others’ help as mere kindness.
In such cases, creating more work might be the solution.
“If you feel really sorry, could you just arrange a place for us to stay? We’re quite exhausted from everything.”
“Ah, yes! You can sleep anywhere in the building we have. We’ll also prepare food for you in the morning!”
Kalmo, who was excited to have something to do, clearly had a burden on his mind.
“It seems like he felt he had to offload his misfortune onto us.”
He quickly gathered people and started working.
It seemed that the burden was not unique to Kalmo, as everyone moved without a hint of laziness.
“Let’s rest now. Tomorrow will be a day with even more activity.”
Both Sang-sik and Nae-a nodded vigorously.
Seeing the beds in the house Kalmo guided them to, Johan almost lost his rationality.
“Yes, there should be rest before tomorrow. Let’s all get a good rest. A bed in a dungeon is quite a rare experience.”
Each person was assigned a room in the house, which was spacious.
Since the villagers had not slept in a house after becoming vampires, the space was more than enough.
“Ah, finally alone.”
Everyone had gone in to rest, leaving only Johan and the cool night air.
Johan also entered the assigned house and sank into the soft bed.
“Ah, I’m feeling drowsy.”
He was at the point of falling asleep immediately.
Although he considered resting, there were still things he needed to check.
Things that were somewhat awkward to confirm in the presence of others.
“Shall I open the random boxes first?”
He needed to use everything that could be useful in tomorrow’s battle.
The random boxes were one of those things.
He had seven of them, so hopefully, one of them would contain something useful.
[You have collected 7 Random Boxes. You can attempt to synthesize them into a higher-grade box.]
“Synthesize?”
He took out the boxes to see if any useful items would come out, and a new notification rang.
It was a windfall that synthesis was possible, even though he had just gathered them out of inconvenience. One high-grade item was certainly better than several mediocre ones.
“Synthesize.”
Sparkle
Light radiated from the 7 boxes. The dazzling light gathered and began merging the boxes into one.
[Synthesis successful! The Random Boxes have been synthesized into a Random Skill Box.]
“Great!”
He cheered. Instead of mediocre items, having a certain item, or even better, a reliable skill was ideal.
“There’s nothing better than a guaranteed skill.”
He opened the box without hesitation. As the box disappeared in a soft light, what Johan held was a skill book.
A skill book containing a skill that could change the course of the battle.
Seeing the effect described on the skill book, Johan couldn’t hide his smile.
With this, he was confident he could handle more than one person’s share, no matter what happened tomorrow. This anticipation lifted his spirits.
Morning arrived, and everyone left their homes with renewed energy.
The transporters—Banso-jeong, Kim Sang-sik, Jo Hang-soo, Yoon Na-ae, Hamster, and Yang Mu—were all ready.
“Wow, you really can’t remember names, can you? It’s not Hamster, it’s Haesu-do. Haesu-do.”
“Sorry… I’m not good with names. I’ll make sure to remember.”
The surroundings were quiet. The villagers had all entered the coffins, and the area was as tranquil and deserted as when they first arrived.
“Shall we head to the field? Just bring one seedling each.”
They headed towards the field with a sack each.
The field wasn’t too far, and after walking for about 5 minutes, they arrived at a field that was poorly maintained, with deep furrows all over.
“First, we need to clean up the ground. In this state, no crop can grow easily. We need to spread fertilizer and make the soil fertile.”
“How much should we clean up? It doesn’t seem like it needs to be that big.”
Yang Mu shook his head at Johan’s question. His arm indicated most of the field.
“We need to clean at least 300 pyeong. The amount of mana required is similar regardless of the number of crops.”
“So, we should pour a lot initially to determine the failure rate?”
“Exactly. Even if it’s just an experiment at first, it’s better not to have to do it twice.”
According to Yang Mu’s prediction, high-quality crops that survive through rapid growth would be about 10%.
It was a side effect of accelerating time. “Just make sure to water at the right timing. That way, the crops won’t wilt at least.”
He needed to be very alert.
Since the nutrients and moisture of the soil also accelerate and disappear, crops of harvestable quality would only emerge if the timing was right.
“Don’t underestimate farming. It’s a task that requires your full effort.”
“Ugh. When will we finish all this?”
Haesu-do, holding a shovel, pouted. It looked like they had never used a shovel before.
“I think it would be better to get some help.”
“Help?”
“There’s no need for us to do all the labor ourselves. We don’t know what might happen.”
When Na-ae asked in surprise, Johan raised his hand.
The sky opened up above them.
“Oh, oh?”
An endless darkness swallowed the blue sky. It was similar to the scene when the dungeon went berserk.
“Everyone, get your weapons ready! Monsters are coming!”
Yang Mu raised his sickle and assumed a battle stance. Everyone, except Johan, swallowed nervously and watched the opened sky.
Thud!
A coffin fell. Everyone’s eyes were filled with question marks at this never-before-seen situation.
“There’s a pro at flipping the ground. They might be able to clean this place within a minute.”
Creek—
The lid opened. Something emerged from the boundless, pitch-black darkness.
“Mo… Mool?”
Kyu— Kyuuk—
A large monster, with long claws and a wagging tail, appeared. The sight of the monster, which was larger than most wild beasts, showing affection made Yang Mu raise his hands and give a silly smile.
